>> wendell pierce joins me to talk about his new project. congratulations.used to being the actor, the star. now you're the producer. >> yes. i started producing a couple years ago. i produced radio on broadway. >> you're tackling one which is always timely, which is certainly race. this play was off broadway in 2011. it received the pulitzer prize for drama. the list goes on and on. the timing is everything. when the trayvon martin case happened, we text messaged each other talk bg you hoyt feels to be profiled. how does it feel to have this now on broadway? first of all, it is a play that is wickly funny as they say. >> which is hard when you're talking about race. >> which is hard when you're talking about race. to have a satire like this, we're saying things that people never get the chance to say. so it opens up the dialogue a lot more. we have a terrific cast and a terrific play written, i think this brings all the discussions together in a very unique way. that was a thing that made me want to be a part of it. >> for everything that i read, what i thi

. >>> wendell pierce made his name playing sharp characters in tough places and post katrina in new orleansry. >> for wejd pierce, katrina led to a second crisis, what he calls food deserts in his hometo hometown, vast trechs where people have no access to quality grocery. he insists that needs to change. and he pitched in. >> reporter: at first glance, new orleans is that, the culture, the music -- >> double crab. >> reporter: and, of course, the cuisine. there are 1251 restaurants currently open in the increacre city, that's 451 more than before katrina. but for wendell pierce, who grew up in new orleans and who returned home to star in hbo's critically acclaimed "treme" those numbers hardly tell the whole story. >> we can't look at this through rose-colored glasses because it's a tale of two cities. the city is thriving but still large portions of your working class, poor communities, that do not have infrastructure coming back to the level it should be 6 1/2 years after the disaster. >> this is just a mini supermarket, in essence here. >> reporter: he partnered with his friend troy henr